F 

10)4 



FARMINGTON SOLDIERS 

IN THE COLONIAL WARS 



AN 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



Hnnual CSicctiwQ 



The Village Library Company 



FARMINGTON, CONN. 



September 8, iSgj 



By JULIUS GAY 



Hartford, Conn, 

Press of The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company 

1897 




aass_IllOA 

Book_Ija_S.-^-i- 



FARMINGTON SOLDIERS 

IN THE COLONIAL WARS 



AN 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



Hnnual nfteeting 



The Village Library Company 



FARMINGTON, CONN. 



September 8, i8gj 



By JULIUS GAY 



jV ', ; ,,♦ ». ., ;*, ;,• •.,' 



Hartford, Conn. 

Press of The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company 

1897 



ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Goitlciiicii of the Village Library Company of 

Fariningto7i : 

I propose this evening- to give some account of Farm- 
ington soldiers in the wars preceding the Revolution, 
while the colony was still under the crown. In so doing 
I shall consider the men of this village only, leaving- out 
of sight the vastly more numerous residents of the 
ancient town, which once extended from Simsbury on 
the north to Cheshire on the south, and from Wethers- 
field westward to what is now the town of Plymouth. 

The first serious conflict in which the settlers of Con- 
necticut were engaged was the Pequot War. This oc- 
curred before our village had any existence, but several 
of the men who afterward settled Farmington, and who 
here lived and died, were in the fight. That we may 
realize the necessity and the justifiableness of the war, 
let us briefly recall the situation. In the river towns of 
Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield were only about 250 
adult men, and in the fort at Saybrook twenty more, 
under the command of Lion Gardiner. In the south- 
eastern corner of the colony was the powerful tribe of 
the Pequots, under their sachem, Sassacus ; further east 
the Narrag-ansetts, under Miantonimo ; and to the north 
the Mohegans, under the friendly Uncas ; while to the 
west were the dreaded Mohawks. An attempt by the 
Pequots to unite all the tribes and wipe out the whites at 
one blow failed. The Narragansetts hated the Pequots 
more fiercely than they did the Englishmen, and Uncas 
was always the friend of the whites. 



In 1633 two traders of Virginia, Stone and Norton, 
with six other men, were murdered in their vessel as they 
were sailing up the river to the Dutch fort at Hartford. 
Three years later occurred the murder of John Oldham 
at Block Island, and the ill-advised attempt of Endicott 
from the Bay Colony to chastise without destroying the 
offenders called out the indignant protest of Gardiner : 
"You come hither to raise these wasps about my ears, 
and then you take wing and flee away." After the kill- 
ing and torture of numerous men at Saybrook, and the 
roasting alive of a Wethersfield man, the savages pro- 
ceeded to the latter place, killed seven men, a woman, 
and child, and carried away two girls. This .was bring- 
ing the war too near home, and so, in May, 1637, the Gen- 
eral Court at Hartford " ordered that there shall be an 
offensive war against the Pequot." A levy of ninety 
men was ordered, to be under the command of Capt. 
John Mason, who had learned the art of war with Fair- 
fax in the Netherlands. For the captain, the minister, 
and the sick were to be provided one hogshead of good 
beer, three or four gallons of strong water, and two gal- 
lons of sack, and for the army a vast supply of stores. 
On the loth of May, 1637, the expedition sailed down the 
river in three vessels, with their friend Uncas and seventy 
of his men. The graphic account of the expedition 
written by Capt. Mason is quite as entertaining as any 
commentary of Caesar, but we have time only to recall 
what every school boy has read — the burning of the Pe- 
quot fort and the destruction of their power. INIason 
says : " Thus in little more than one hour's space was 
this impregnable fort, with themselves, utterly destroyed, 
to the number of six or seven hundred." Whatever we 
may think of this style of warfare, the Indians surely 
had no right to complain of any barbarity. No half-way 
measures were possible. One nation or the other must 



5 

be exterminated. The valiant Capt. Mason closed his 
a.ccount with the pious exhortation : " Let us, therefore, 
praise the Lord for His goodness and His wonderful 
works to the children of men." And then, by way of 
postscript, says : " I shall add a word or two by way of 
comment. . . . Our commons were very short. . . . 
We had but one pint of strong liquors among us in our 
whole m.arch. . . . (the bottle of liquor being in my 
hand), and when it was empty, the very smelling to the 
bottle would presently recover such as fainted away, 
which happened by the extremity of the heat. ... I 
shall mention two or three special providences that God 
was pleased to vouchsafe to particular men. . . . John 
Dier and Thomas Steel were both of them shot in the 
knots of their handkerchiefs, being about their necks, 
and received no hurt. Lieutenant Seely was shot in the 
eyebrow with a flat-headed arrow, the point turning 
downward ; I pulled it out myself. Lieutenant Bull [an- 
cestor of our Deacon Bull] had an arrow shot into a hard 
piece of cheese, having no other defense ; which may 
verify the old saying, ' A little armor would serve if a 
man knew where to place it.' " On their return the sol- 
diers from Hartford were granted a lot known as the Sol- 
dier's Field, and it is largely from the record of this land 
that we learn the names of the soldiers in the fight. One 
of those who soon helped settle Farmington was Thomas 
Barnes, whose house stood on the east side of the main 
street on land now occupied by the old burying-ground, 
or possibly just south of it. Another Pequot soldier was 
John Bronson, whose house stood near what is sometimes 
called Diamond Glen Brook, having the mountain to the 
south, and highways on all other sides. A third was 
Deacon Stephen Hart, a man of note in all public mat- 
ters, whether pertaining to the town or the church. His 
house was on the west side of the main street, opposite 



6 

the meeting-house. The fourth, and, so far as I know, 
the only remaining soldier, was John Warner, who lived 
in a house nearly opposite the savings bank, which he 
sold about 1665 to Matthew Woodruff, and bought an- 
other of Reinold Marvin on the west side of the main 
street, near the house of T. H. and L. C. Root. To 
Thomas Barnes and John Warner each, the General 
Court in October, 1671, granted fifty acres of land for 
their services as Pequot soldiers. 

The Pequot war ended, the settlers were able to culti- 
vate in security the rich lands bought by them of Sequas- 
son, the sachem of the Indians of Hartford and vicinity. 
In 1650 they obtained a new deed from the Indians of 
Tunxis Sepus with new agreements " to settle peace in a 
way of truth and righteousness betwixt the English and 
them." For fourteen years they lived in much peace and 
contentment undisturbed by the distant wars of savage 
tribes. At length the Commissioners of the United Col- 
onies resolved to assist the Long Island Indians in a war 
against the Narragansetts. Twenty men were to go 
from Connecticut, of whom Farmington was to send one 
man. The expedition was under the command of Major 
Willard of Massachusetts, who found the Indians had 
deserted their village and taken refuge in a swamp 
fifteen miles away. Leaving them unmolested, he 
marched home again and disbanded his forces. The 
next General Court at Hartford voted the soldiers six- 
pence a day for their valuable services, and thus ended 
the Narragansett war. Who the one soldier was from 
Farmington does not appear. 

Leaving unconsidered the constant warfare of hostile 
tribes and the complex diplomacy by which the colonies 
sought to keep the peace, we must confine ourselves to 
what especially concerns our village. On the 9th of 
April, 1657, the General Court takes cognizance of "a 



most horrid murder committed by some Indians at Farm- 
ington." Fourteen days afterward John Hull of Boston 
records in his diary: "We also heard, that at a town 
called Farmington, near Hartford, an Indian was so bold 
as to kill an English woman great with child, and like- 
wise her maid, and also sorely wounded a little child — 
all within their house,— and then fired the house, which 
also fired some other barns or houses. The Indians, 
being apprehended, delivered up the murderer, who was 
brought to Hartford, and (after he had his right hand cut 
off) Cas with an axe knocked on the head by the execu- 
tioner. The Lord teach us what such sad providences 
speak unto us all ! " I speak more particularly of this 
occurrence because careless writers persist in confound- 
ing this affair with the burning of the house of Sergeant 
John Hart in 1666, with which the Indians had nothing 

whatever to do. 

The situation was becoming so serious that the com- 
missioners in September forbade Indians traveling armed 
from village to village. Here is an examination, by the 
magistrates, of a body of Deerfield Indians who came 
through Farmington in a threatening manner on April 
28th of the following year. The combined shrewdness 
and insolence of the Indian replies are interesting. 

Q. Whence come you ? 

A. We are Pocumtocooks. 

Q. Why come you so many of you armed with guns ? 

A. Why may one not carry guns as well as the Mo- 
hegans or other Indians. And why do you carry arms? 

Q. What did you do at Hockanum ? 

A. We were on our way. 

Q. What did you do at the English houses ? 

A. Nothing. 

Q. We asked whether they were at Robert [illegible] 



8 

house yesterday and whether they did not take away a 
basket of corn and a pewter bottle. 

A. They returned and asked us whether we came to 
look after an old Indian basket, and thereupon heaved 
unto us an old Indian basket and a bunch of flax. This 
they did with laughter and derision. 

Q. We asked whither they were going. 

A. They told us that we are here. The chief of this 
company was one Wonoepekum to whom we directed 
our speech and desired them that they would give us a 
reason why they came through the English plantations 
in such manner contrary to the law made by the commis- 
sioners last September Anno 1657. Unto this they made 
us no return. 

No more serious disturbances with the Indians oc- 
curred until in 1675, Philip's War called a new generation 
of soldiers to the field. Massasoit, sachem of the Poka- 
nokets, was dead. His oldest son, Wamsutta, did not long 
survive him, and Metacomet, his second son, known as 
Philip, became chief sachem of the tribe. You have all 
read of this savage hero, whose proud nature could not 
endure the arrogance of the Plymouth people, and who 
for two years devastated the country with fire and 
slaughter. The war, beginning in June, 1675, at Swansea, 
spread northward through Massachusetts, destroying the 
towns on the Connecticut River, and came as near to us 
as Simsbury, which was burned on the 26th of March, 
1676. On the 6th of August, two days after the attack on 
Brookfield, Massachusetts, the Council at Hartford or- 
dered one hundred dragoons raised, fifteen from Farm- 
ington. Again, September 2d, Farmington was ordered 
to furnish seven of the 100 soldiers who marched under 
Major Treat and rescued the survivors of the Bloody 
Brook fight at Deerfield on the i8th. Again, November 
25 th, the Council ordered fifteen soldiers from Farming- 



ton which were probably in the great Narragansett 
Swamp Fight of December 19th. On the 4th of January 
following seven more were called for, and on the 21st of 
February ten more. Driven from Rhode Island, the sav- 
ages assaulted the Massachusetts towns, Lancaster, Med- 
ford, Northampton, Rehoboth, and vSudbury, and on 
March 26th burned Simsbury in this colony. On May 
ist Sergeant Anthony Howkins of this town was ordered 
to raise as many volunteers as possible. Twenty days 
later, " upon the intelligence of the last engagement up 
the river," five more were ordered from this village. The 
engagement referred to was the famous " Falls Fight " 
on the morning of May 19th at Turner's Falls above 
Greenfield, where Johanna Smith of this town was killed 
and Roger Orvis wounded. Philip now returned to his 
old haunts at Pokanoket, and finally, with a few remain- 
ing followers, was driven into a swamp and killed. The 
General Court ordered the first day of November, 1676, 
to be solemnly kept a day of public thanksgiving, and 
Rev. Samuel Hooker of the Farmington church, preach- 
ing the next election sermon, lamented "how many vil- 
lages are already forsaken of their inhabitants, their 
highways unoccupied, how many chosen young men are 
fallen upon the high places of the field, how many wid- 
ows left solitary among us, with tears on their cheeks, 
how many mothers in Israel weeping for their children, 
and refuse to be comforted because they are not." 

Peace having returned, the town granted land called 
" soldier lots " to those who fought in the war, and from 
the record of these we learn the names of some of the 
soldiers. Care, however, must be used not to confound 
the names of the subsequent purchasers with those of the 
soldiers, the original record having been worn out and 
lost, and only a portion of the grants having been tran- 
scribed into the " new book," so called, which opens with 



lO 

the year 1682. I will give a brief account of twenty sol- 
diers, being all I can positively identify. 

Joseph Andrews, son of John, was born in 1651, and 
removed, after the war, to that part of Wethersfield now 
known as Newington, where he died in 1706. Benjamin 
Barnes, son of Thomas, the Pequot soldier, was born in 
1653, and removed to Waterbury, where he became a 
townsman — that is, selectman, and a grave-digger. 
There he died in 1712. Joseph Barnes, brother of Ben- 
jamin, was born in 1655, married Abigail Gibbs, and died 
in 1 741. His house was next south of the old burying- 
ground. Samuel Gridley was a constable, and for five 
years a selectman. His house was on the west side of 
the main street, on or near the site of the house of the 
late Egbert Cowles, Esq. Anthony Howkins was one of 
the patentees named in the charter of Charles H, and an 
assistant in the years 1666 to 1673, inclusive. He was or- 
dered to raise a company of soldiers at Farmington, and 
march them to Hadley in May, 1676. His house was on 
the east side of the road to Hartford, nearly opposite 
where the North schoolhouse now stands. John Judd, 
son of Deacon Thomas, was a son-in-law of Anthony How- 
kins, was a deputy to the General Court many times, and 
held the offices of ensign and lieutenant. His house was 
on the west side of the main street, where Major Hooker 
afterward lived, and after him the late Deacon William 
Gay. Samuel Judd, brother of the last-named soldier, 
married after the war, and removed to Northampton, 
where he lived and died. William Lewis was the son of 
Capt. William Lewis, and grandson of William the immi- 
grant. He was selectman in 1696 and 1713. He owned 
several houses, one of which was fortified by the town — 
very likely the one on the site of the Elm Tree Inn. 
John and Thomas Newell, sons of Thomas the immi- 
grant, were born in a house which stood on or near the 



II 

site of that of Mrs. Dr. Brown, opposite the Catholic 
Church. They removed to Waterbury. James and Na- 
thaniel North, sons of John the immigrant, who lived 
near where now stands the house of the late Dr. Asahel 
Thomson, were born in Farmington in 1647 and 1656, re- 
spectively, and removed from the town soon after the 
war. Roger Orvis, son of George the immigrant, was in 
the party which marched from Hadley for the relief of 
Hatfield, May 20, 1676, and was wounded. His house was 
at " ye southerly end of the town plat," near where the 
late James W. Cowles lived. Dr. Daniel Porter was a 
son of the first Dr. Daniel, who lived on the west side of 
the main street, not far from the vSouth schoolhouse, and 
who was paid a salary of twelve pounds by the General 
Court for setting all the broken bones in the colony, and 
was allowed six shillings extra for traveling expenses for 
each journey to the river towns. Dr. Daniel, the younger, 
who assumed the practice of surgery on the death of his 
father, removed to Waterbury, and was the second of 
five generations of Drs. Daniel Porter — father, son, 
grandson, great-grandson, and nephew of great-grandson. 
His medical library consisted of "a bone set book," ap- 
praised at two shillings. Thomas Porter, son of the first 
Robert, was the great-grandfather of Dr. Noah Porter. 
Johanna Smith was born at Wethersfield before his father 
removed to this town, in or about the year 1656. He was 
killed May 30, 1676, in the expedition for the relief of 
Hatfield. His soldier lot was laid out to his heirs, " a top 
of ye mountain against Rocke Chayr." This singular 
rock formation, or what is left of it, stands on the north 
side of the road to Hartford, a little west of the stone 
crusher. With an attempt to emphasize the unusual, it 
was long known as the Devil's Rocking Chair. Deacon 
John Stanley received a grant of a soldier lot from the 
town, and was pretty certainly a soldier in King Philip's 



12 

War, rather than his father, Captain John, to whom has 
sometimes been ascribed that honor. He removed to 
Waterbury, but subsequently returned to Farmington. 
Much interesting information about him can be found in 
the recent history of Waterbury. Timothy Stanly, 
brother of John, also removed to Waterbury, and was a 
prominent man. John Woodruff, son of the first Matthew, 
filled a number of town offices — townsman, fence-viewer, 
chimney-viewer, etc. Simon Wrotham, the last on the 
list, was known as Mr., but I have been unable to learn 
the source of a title then accorded only to ministers and 
men high in official position. He was certainly conspicu- 
ous in the church, which excommunicated him. Before 
a council he fared no better, whereupon he appealed to 
the General Court to cite both the church and council 
before them, which body declined " to give the church or 
council any trouble to appear before them .... but 
advised said Wrothum to a serious consideration of his 
former ways." His house stood near the site of the resi- 
dence of Mr. H. H. Mason. 

In addition to these, six Farmington friendly Indians 
went up to Springfield on the 6th of October, 1675. 
Trusting you will excuse any error in my pronunciation 
of Algonquin which you may detect, I give you the 
names of the warriors as recorded. Nesehegan, Wanaw- 
messe, Woewassa, Sepoose, Uckchepassun, and Unckco- 
wott. 

But we must hurry on. There is still much fighting 
before us. With the death of Philip the scene of strife 
was removed to the Province of Maine, and Connecticut 
had rest until England, on the accession of William and 
Mary, declared war with France in May, 1689. Then 
began a new series of fiendish massacres, planned no 
longer by the savage Philip, but by the polite French 
rulers of Quebec, and continued until the Peace of Rys- 



13 

wick in September, 1697. Connecticut repeatedly sent 
soldiers to Albany, a force under Winthrop in the expe- 
dition of Sir William Pliipps against Montreal in 1690, 
and in 1695 to the river towns of Massachusetts. The 
peace was of short duration. After a rest of five years 
Queen Anne declared war against France and Spain, and 
the savages, led by French generals, recommenced their 
midnight massacres. In 1704, seven houses in Farming- 
ton w^ere ordered fortified, viz., those of Thomas Orton, 
William Lewis, Howkins Hart, James Wadsworth, John 
Hart, John Wadsworth, and Samuel Wadsworth. In the 
expedition against Quebec under Nicholson in 1709, 
wdiich failed for want of the promised assistance of Eng- 
lish ships, Farmington furnished eleven men. How 
many of the 300 Connecticut soldiers who went under 
Col. Whiting in the successful Port Royal Expedition of. 
1 710, is not recorded, or of the 360 who marched under 
Whiting the next year against Quebec and failed, owing 
to the utter incompetency of the English Admiral 
Walker. The peace of Utrecht was signed March, 171 3, 
and the colony had rest. The only Farmington soldier 
in the Canada Expedition of 171 1, whose name I find 
recorded, was John Scott. Capt. John Hart marched 
a company in February, 1712, into the county of Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, but the names of his soldiers have 
not been preserved on any known record. From the 
peace of Utrecht in 171 3, to the declaration of war 
against Spain in 1739, the colony had peace broken only 
by fears of invasion from Canada, which did not take 
place, but which kept the colony in constant alarm. On 
the destruction of Rutland, Vermont, in 1723, a company 
of 200 men was formed from the trainbands of Hartford, 
Windsor, and Wethersfield to hold themselves in readi- 
ness. Hunting parties of friendly Indians were forbid- 
den north of the roads from Farmington to Waterbury 



14 

and from Farmington to Hartford, and scouting parties 
of whites were ordered to range the woods continuously 
north of vSimsbury. In May, 1724, thirty-two men, of 
whotn ten were from Farmington, were ordered for the 
defense of Litchfield against a party of hostile Indians 
discovered lurking about that town. One of the ten was 
Matthew Woodruff, the fourth in direct descent of that 
name, who, in his memorial to the General Assembly in 
May, 1725, says: " Your memorialist in the summer last 
past at Litchfield, being a soldier there, killed an Indian 
(one of the common enemy) by the help of God." The 
Assembly voted him thirty pounds, whereupon one Na- 
thaniel Watson of Windsor, encouraged by his success, 
represented to the Assembly that he too made a vshot at 
an Indian at the same time as Mr. Woodruff, and thought 
he hit him, but the General Assembly thought otherwise. 
The following year the New Milford Indians held dances 
in war-paint and barbarously murdered a child, where- 
upon the Governor and Council ordered all painted In- 
dians to be treated as enemies. John Hooker, William 
Wadsworth, and Isaac Cowles, or any two of them, were 
ordered to " inspect the Indians of Farmington . . . 
every day about sunset " who were required to give " an 
account of their rambles and business the preceding 
day." Submission to such an infringement of their per- 
sonal liberty, shows the peaceful character of the Tunxis 
Indians. In October following they were allowed their 
former liberty, provided they abstained from war-paint 
and wore a white cloth on their heads while in the 
woods. The danger was soon over, and no Connecticut 
town suffered actual violence. 

In October 23, 1739, England declared war against 
Spain, and Connecticut was called upon for two compa- 
nies of 100 men each which sailed in September of the 
following year under Captains Roger Newberry and John 



15 

Silliman to join the disastrous expedition of Admiral 
Vernon against Carthagena. Of the i ,000 men from New- 
England, scarcely 100 returned. What was the quota of 
Farmington does not appear or the names of the men. 
The folly and rashness of Vernon, bringing sorrow to a 
thousand homes, did not prevent the poet Thomson from 
singing his praises or Lawrence Washington from nam- 
ing Mount Vernon in his honor. Five years of compara- 
tive quiet pass. On the 4th of March, 1745, France de- 
clares war and once more lets loose her savage allies 
upon the English frontiers. Her stronghold w^as the 
fortress of Louisbourg on the island of Cape Breton, and 
no lasting peace seemed possible until Canada, and, first 
of all, this fortress, was w^rested from her. An expedition 
of New England troops, under the direction of Gov. Shir- 
ley of Massachusetts, defended from molestation seaward 
by British men of war, was sent for its reduction and cap- 
tured it June 17th, a day subsequently memorable as the 
anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. Connecticut 
sent 500 men besides 100 in the colony's sloop, Z)r/r;/r^, 
and 200 more during the siege. Of the company from 
this vicinity Timothy Root of Farmington was lieuten- 
ant, and died at Cape Breton in April after the surrender. 
He was the great-great-grandfather of T. H. and L. C. 
Root. I know of no list of the soldiers of his company. 
Dr. Samuel Richards, who practiced as a physician in 
numerous towns in this vicinity and died in Plainville, 
learned the rudiments of his professional knowledge in 
the hospital established for the New England troops. 
Another soldier in this campaign, as appears from his 
memorial to the General Court, was Ebenezer Smith, son 
of Jonathan, w^ho lived on the south side of the road to 
Hartford, near where Mr. Martin O'Meara now lives. He 
removed to New Britain, and his gravestone describes 
him as late of Farmington. Ebenezer Lee and Gershom 



i6 

Orvis, in the company of Adonijali Fitch, were probably 
identical with Farmington men of that name. In May, 
1 746, twenty men were ordered as scouts to the county of 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and forty more for a similar 
service " between the enemy's borders and the borders of 
the British plantation." By request of his Majesty's gov- 
ernment a new expedition against Canada was organized. 
In May the General Court ordered 600 men raised, and in 
June increased the number to 1,000, but the ships for 
their support were sent elsewhere and the colonies given 
over to destruction by the formidable French fleet under 
d'Anville, which proposed to wipe out every vestige of 
Englishmen and their hated religion from the western 
continent. Pestilence and the war of the elements came 
to their relief, and the New England divines thanked the 
Almighty for a repetition of the story of Sennacherib the 
Assyrian. The war ended with the treaty of Aix la 
Chapelle, April 30, 1748. 

For seven years the colony had a respite from war, 
but in 1754, without any declaration of war, the French 
began to extend their line of forts around the English 
settlements, which led to four expeditions to break their 
line in 1755. One against the Ohio, resulting in Brad- 
dock's defeat and Washington's first lesson in war; one 
against Nova Scotia, familiar to the readers of Longfel- 
low's Evangeline ; one against Niagara, and one against 
Crown Point. For the latter service Connecticut raised 
1,500 men in four companies of 750 men each, who partic- 
ipated in the bloody but indecisive battle of September 
6th at Lake George. As a result of the Nova Scotia 
expedition, some of the Acadians were sent to Connecti- 
cut, and more, to the number of 400, being expected, the 
General Court ordered fourteen sent to Farmington as its 
proper proportion. So ended the year 1755. Of Farm- 
ington soldiers, we can identify Ezekiel Lewis, sergeant ; 



17 

Ebenezer Orvis, ensign ; and privates Bela Lewis, Sam- 
uel Bird, and Noah Porter, father of the late Dr. Noah 
Porter and grandfather of President Porter. Deacon 
Noah Porter, who served in this expedition, lived in his 
boyhood in the house of his father Robert which stood 
where now stands the brick house built by the late Fran- 
cis W. Cowles, next north of Miss Adgate's pharmacy. 
The house was given him by his father on his marriage 
in 1764, and was occupied by him until about 1781, when, 
after the birth of Dr. Porter, he removed to what is now 
the town farm on the road to Avon. This he sold in 
1809 and returned to village life at the house of his son, 
then the pastor of the church of which the father had 
been for thirty-four years a deacon. 

For the campaign of 1756 against Crown Point the 
Connecticut Colony ordered 2,500 men raised and formed 
into four regiments, and in October, in response to the 
urgent call of the Earl of Loudon for reinforcements, 
eight additional companies of 100 men each were ordered 
raised out of the town train-bands, Josiah Lee of Farm- 
ington to be captain of one of the companies. They 
were no sooner raised than Loudon concluded to go into 
winter quarters three months before the usual time and 
do nothing. The troops were accordingly dismissed, and 
so ended the inglorious carnpaign of 1756. In this cam- 
paign were Ezekiel Lewis, lieutenant, Ebenezer Orvis, 
second lieutenant, Samuel Gridley^and David Andrus, 
sergeants, and Samuel Bird, Abraham Hills, and Bela 
Lewis, privates. Dr. Elisha Lord, then of this village, was 
in March, 1756, appointed physician and surgeon for this 
expedition. On the 2d of October Dr. Timothy Collins 
of Litchfield, the chief surgeon, returned home sick, and 
Dr. Lord took his place. He soon afterward removed to 
Norwich. 

In the campaign of 1757 Connecticut raised 1,400 men 
3 



i8 

to act under the Earl of Loudon. There followed the 
surrender of Fort William Henry at the southern end of 
Lake George to the French general, Montcalm, and the 
butchery of the garrison by the Indians in violation of 
the terms of the surrender, and this was all the result of 
great preparations, vast expense, and brilliant hopes. 
The Farmington soldiers were Ezekiel Lewis, ensign, 
privates Samuel Bird, Sylvanus Curtis, Gershom Orvis, 
and Bethuel Norton. Immediately upon the capture of 
Fort William Henry, the colony was called on in hot 
haste for reinforcements, and sent about 5, coo men. 
They were no sooner on their way than orders came 
from General Webb for their return. This campaign 
was known as the Alarm of 1757. The soldiers from this 
village were in service sixteen days, and were Captain 
William Wadsworth, sergeant Judah Woodruff, clerk 
James Wadsworth, corporal Hezekiah Wadsworth, and 
privates Amos Cowles, Phinehas Cowles, Rezin Gridley, 
Elisha Hart, Noadiah Hooker, John Judd, Elihu Newell, 
Joseph Root,- Timothy Woodruff, Solomon Woodruff, 
and an Indian, Elijah Wimpey. Probably there were 
others. 

England, now thoroughly tired of its incompetent 
generals and ministers, compelled King George to accept 
the administration of William Pitt, the great commoner, 
as the only man to save the country from ruin. Pitt re- 
called the weak Loudon and sent over Generals Wolf and 
Amherst, and Admiral Boscawen, and a new era began. 
In response to an appeal by Pitt stating that his majesty 
has " nothing more at heart than to repair the losses and 
disappointments of the last inactive and unhappy cam- 
paign, and, by the blessing of God on his arms, the 
damages impending on North America," the General 
Assembly raised five thousand men for the campaign of 
1758. The capture of Louisburg, the strongest fortress 



19 

of the French, followed by that of Fort Frontenac on the 
north bank of the St. Lawrence where it flows out of 
Lake Ontario, and of Fort Duquesne where now stands 
the city of Pittsburg, revived the spirits of the nation. 
The loss of Lord Howe in the march against Fort Ticon- 
deroga and the subsequent ill-advised attack on that fort 
by Bradstreet, alone marred the success of the campaign. 
The Farmington soldiers, so far as known, were Judah 
Woodruff, lieutenant, vSamuel Bird and Eleazer Curtis, 
sergeants, and Ashbel Norton, David Orvis, Daniel Owen, 
and Bela Lewis, privates, and probably Matthew Norton 
and Thomas Norton. 

For the memorable campaign of 1759 Connecticut 
raised 3,600 men. The capture of Ticonderoga, Crown 
Point, Niagara, and finally of Quebec itself followed, with 
the glorious victory of Wolf over Montcalm on the Plains 
of Abraham. We know very few of the soldiers who 
took part in this series of victories. The imperfect mus- 
ter rolls here fail us altogether. We know that Judah 
Woodruff was first and Samuel Gridley was second lieu- 
tenant during the years 1759 and 1760, and that is about 
all. The journal of a single private soldier has been 
preserved, — a boyish, illiterate performance, it neverthe- 
less gives us quite as vivid a picture of what happened 
around him as do the more formal accounts of his supe- 
riors. It was written by Reuben Smith, son of Thomas 
and Mary Smith, well-known citizens of our village, who 
owned and lived in the south two-thirds of the long house 
opposite the savings bank. I will give you the greater 
part of the journal. 

"April the 18, 1759. We marched from Farmington. The 
20th we entered Greenbush. The next day we sailed over the 
river and encamped on the hill. May 29, 1759. We marched from 
Albany to Schenectady, and the same day Horres [Horace?] was 
shot at Albany before we marched. We set out very late and got 



20 

there before night, and pitched our tents and lay very well. As I 
have thought it proper to write all that is strange, now this thing 
it seems more strange than anything that I have seen since I came 
from home. June the 3d day in Schenectady there were two old 
women got one of the old Leather Hats drunk, and took him to 
the guard house and put him under guard. . . . God 
save the King and all the Leather Hat men. June the 6th. There 
was a woman riding the road from Schenectady to Sir William 
Johnson's. There came a number of Indians and pulled her off 
her horse and scalped her, but left her alive. Oh ! it grieves me to 
take my pen to write these ways of an Indian. This poor woman 
had a child about one year and a half old, which she begged that 
she might embrace it once more with a kiss before they killed it. 
But these cruel, barbarous, cruel creatures . . . stripped 
her and left her in her blood, and they killed her poor child or 
carried it into captivity, and another lad that was with them. 
This woman was brought into Schenectady, and she lived about 
two days and died. I saw her buried myself, Reuben Smith. 
June the 12th day, 1759. One of Major Rogers' captains. Captain 
Redfield, catched three Frenchmen and brought two of them into 
Schenectady, and from there to Albany. The other they carried 
to Sir William Johnson's. I saw these captives myself. Reuben 
Smith. Schenectady, June 20. Died William Ellsworth of Har- 
rington [Harwinton?! in a fit. Belonged to Capt. Paterson's Co., 
the first that died after we left home. June the 24, 1759. Died 
Samuel W^right, son to Emersine [Emerson .^1 Wright of New 
Britain. He died at Schenectady with sickness in the barracks. 
He was about 18 years of age. July the ist, 1759. I was pleased 
to take a walk to the Dutch Church, and all that I learnt was the 
148th Psalm, which they sang. I understood the psalm which the 
clerk mentioned, and that was all. July 4, 1759. Returned one 
Stevens who had been in captivity the space of one year. He be- 
longed to Canterbury. He was sold to an Indian squaw. She 
told him that she would return him to his own land in a few days, 
but kept him almost one j^ear, and he ran away, and his first post 
was Swago [Oswego ?], and from thence to Fort Stanwix, and 
there came a guard from thence with a French lieutenant. They 
carried him from Schenectady to Albany blindfolded. July 20, 
1759. Died Samuel Woodford of Farmington at Schenectady. 
July 10, 1759. I set out a batteauxing for my pleasure. I went to 



2 [ 

the Little Carrying Place and returned the 19th to Schenectady 
again. . . . 2 of August I had news that Niagara was 

ours at the loss of [illegible] notwithstanding. Kept a day of re- 
joicing and eating and drinking. Came night we built a large fire 
almost extended to the clouds, and shot our guns briskly. August 
the 10. Came an old bush-headed man crying good limes, good 
limes, good limes, with such open throat and horrid mouth that 
some took him to be the devil. . . . October the 14th. 
I am sorry to think that I have omitted writing so long. Now 
one thing prompts me to write. There were two men killed by 
Negroes in a garden. November the 7th, 1759. Died Capt. Daniel 
Owen of Farmington, belonging to Major John Patterson's com- 
pany." 

The subsequent year our journalist came again to 
Schenectady, but died on the 26th of jSIay. 

To strengthen and defend the places captured, and 
for the reduction of INIontreal, Connecticut raised 5,000 
men in 1760, and 2,300 more during each of the years 
1 76 1 and 1762. Martinique was captured in February, 
1762, and Havana in the succeeding August. From the 
latter expedition scarcely a man returned. From the 
memorial of his widow to the General Assembly, it ap- 
pears that Lieut. David Andrus, who lived where the 
East Farms district schoolhouse now stands, was taken 
sick before the embarkation of the troops on their return 
from Havana, and died about eight days after his ar- 
rival in New York. 

The treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, ended the war. 
With the exception of 265 men sent in 1764 to put down 
the Indian uprising at Detroit, the colony was not called 
upon for more soldiers until the War of the Revolution. 

Such is the account of the soldiers of this village, so 
far as I have been able to gather it from contemporaneous 
records. A much more entertaining narrative might 
have been constructed from family traditions, which 
sometimes contain a grain of truth, but not always. The 



22 

stories of Indian warfare compiled by the father of the 
late Egbert Cowles, Esq., for the history of this town by 
Governor Treadwell, might have been drawn on, or the 
stories heard in my own childhood to the droning accom- 
paniment of the spinning-wheel, in the long winter even- 
ings, when the labors of the day were over — blood-curd- 
ling tales of Indian massacres, interspersed with stories 
of New England witchcraft, of Captain Kidd and the Sa- 
tanic hosts who guarded his buried treasure — all devoutly 
believed in by the aged narrator. If, instead, I have 
given you but a bare list of names, it is, so far as it goes, 
a reliable one and an honorable one. 

LofC. 



INDEX OF SOLDIERS' NAMES. 



Andrews, David 
Andrews, Joseph 
Barnes, Benjamin 
Barnes, Joseph 
Barnes, Thomas 
Bird, Samuel 
Bronson, John 
Cowles, Amos 
Cowles, Phinehas 
Curtis, Eleazer 
Curtis, Sylvanus 
Gridley, Rezin 
Gridley, Samuel 
Hart, Elisha . 
Hart, John . 
Hart, Stephen 
Hills, Abraham 
Hooker, Noadiah 
Howkins, Anthony 
Judd, John . 
Judd, Samuel 
Lee, Ebenezer 
Lee, Josiah . 
Lewis, Bela . 
Lewis, Ezekiel 
Lewis, William 
Lord, Elisha . 
Newell, Elihu 
Newell, John 
Newell, Thomas 
North, James 
North, Nathaniel 



17 



16 



Page. 








Page. 


17 


Norton, Ashbel . . . 19 


10 


Norton, Bethuel 






18 


10 


Norton, Matthew 






19 


10 


Norton, Thomas 






19 


5 


Orvis, David 






19 


18, 19 


Orvis, Ebenezer 






17 


5 


Orvis, Gershom 






16, 18 


18 


Orvis, Roger 






9. II 


18 


Owen, Daniel 






19, 21 


19 


Porter, Daniel 






II 


18 


Porter, Noah 






17 


18 


Porter, Thomas 






II 


17, 19 


Richards, Samuel 






13 


18 


Root, Joseph 






18 


13 


Root, Timothy 






15 


5 


Scott, John . 






13 


17 


Smith, Ebenezer 






15 


18 


Smith, Johanna 






9 


9. 10 


Smith, Reuben 






19 


10, iS 


Stanley, John 






II 


10 


Stanley, Timothy 






10 


15 


Wadsworth, Hezekiah 




18 


17 


"Wads worth, James 




18 


17. 19 


Wadsworth, WilUara 




18 


17, 18 


Warner, John 




6 


10 


Wimpey, Elijah . 




18 


17 


Woodruff, John . 




12 


18 


Woodruff, Judah . 




18, 19 


10 


Woodruff, Matthew 




14 


10 


Woodruff, Solomon 




18 


II 


Woodruff, Timothy 




18 


II 


Wrotham, Simon 






12 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 



Instead of tlie statement on page 6 concerning the residence 
of Jolm Warner, the following is fuller and possibly more cor- 
rect. John Warner in January 1053 owned a live acre lot ex- 
tending on both sides of the Main Street, and })robably includ- 
ing the present site of the Farmington Savings Bank. In Feb- 
ruary of the same year he sold the land on the east side of the 
street to Matthew AVoodruff, and before January 1655 he sold 
an old house, so called, on the west side of the street to Samuel 
Steele. 

On the 14th of August 1T02 the following men, recorded as 
born in Farmington, were mustered into the Company of Capt. 
Timothy Northam, in the 1st Regiment of New York troops 
under Col. Michael Thody. Ezekiel Scott, Sergeant, aged 24, 
occupation a farmer, stature 5 feet 3 inches. Obadiah Andrews 
aged 21. occupation a joiner, stature 5 feet, 10 inches. He w^as 
the son of Joseph Andrews of Southington, born Muy 4, 1741 
and died August 1811, In 1769 he bought of Major Peter Cur- 
tiss the house in Avhich the latter then lived on the east side of 
High Street just north of the house of the late Augustus Bod- 
well, now owned l)y Miss Pope. Thomas Gould, aged 21, occu- 
pation cordwainer, stature 5 feet, 11 inches. Andrew Messen- 
ger, aged 21, occupation cordwainer, stature 5 feet, 9 inches. 
Zophar Andrews a.ged 35, occupation cordwainer, stature 5 feet 
6 inches. There were also two Indians from Farmington, Sam- 
uel Adams and James Wawas. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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